Device for rolling a sheet around a cylindrical object



June 13, 1961 P. VAN DER HEIDEN DEVICE FOR ROLLING A SHEET AROUND A CYLINDRICAL OBJECT Filed Oct. 22. 1958 Wm/r0 P/wLus m on f/E/OEN M A TTOR Vf) United States Patent N.V. Vereenigde Tabaksindustrieen Mignot & de Block,

gilllldhoven, Netherlands, a company of the Nether- Filed Oct. 22, 1958, Ser. No. 169,032 Claims priority, application Netherlands Nov. 1, 1957 4 Claims. (Cl. 131-28) This invention relates to a device for rolling a sheet, e.g. a wrapper leaf, around a cylindrical object, e.g. a bunch or plug of scrap tobacco for the filler of a cigar, said device being provided with a rolling mechanism consisting of a set of revolving'rollers, adapted to be open or to be opened at its bottom after the rolling process has been completed, so that the rolled object may drop from the said rolling mechanism.

In order to facilitate the removal of the object, e.g. the cigar, it is known to provide the rolling mechanism with movable expulsion organs which permit the object to be pushed out of the mechanism. Such expulsion organs, which function like a plunger or ram, are diflicult to mount and may easily damage the sheet or leaf enveloping the object. In case such expulsion organs are not used, however, the object may drop from the rolling mechanism improperly, with the trailing end portion of the object remaining in the mechanism, resulting in serious damage to the object the moment the rolling mechanism is returned to its initial position. The invention has for its object to provide a simple auxiliary means which, like known expulsion plungers, prevents a rolled object from being wholly or partially kept in the rolling mechanism.

The invention consists in the application of an expulsion organ by means of which the contact between the rolled object and that roller of the rolling mechanism which opposes the free fall of the object, may be broken the moment the rolling mechanism is in its opened condition; The expulsion organ may consist of a blade of relatively thin rigid material which is brought or pulled between the roller in question and the object. When the blade consists of a blade of thin metal, plastic or paper, a driving mechanism may be used in order to push the blade between the object and the roller in question the moment the rolling mechanism is in the correct position.

The expulsion organ may also be defined by a blade of flexible material. Such a blade need not be controlled, as it will be guided automatically between the object and the roller in question.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing in which is shown an illustrative embodiment of the invention. In the drawing,

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a cigar wrapping device comprising a rolling mechanism and a table for the support of the leaves to be fed into the rolling mechanism, the device embodying features of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational sectional view of the wrapping device of FIG. 1 as seen approximately along the line 22 of FIG. 1, the device being shown in a first position; and

FIG. 3 is a similar view of the device in a second position.

The cigar wrapping device to which the construction of the invention is applied is of a structure which has been well-known for many years as exemplified by the cigar making machine described in Hammerstein 'U.S. Patent No. 967,187 of August 16, 1910. The rolling mechanism shown in the drawings is thus illustrated somewhat diagrammatically since it does not per se form part of the present invention.

In the drawing, a table 1 has a supporting surface 2 Ice which forms the upper wall of a chamber 5 having an outlet 6.

A rolling mechanism 8 defined by four rotary rollers, all driven in the same direction of rotation, is arranged for relative movement with respect to the table 1. The rollers include a forward roller 8a, a trailing roller 8b, and intermediate rollers 80. The rollers -30 are mounted in mutually fixed positions and define with the supporting surface 2 of the table 1 the rolling space 9, in which is received a cigar bunch 10 which is wrapped during the operation of the machine in a warpper leaf which lies on the supporting surface 2.

The supporting surface 2 is interrupted by a lifting member which consists of a vertically-reciprocating piston-like element 12 which is adapted to lift the bunch 10 to the level of the supporting surface 2 and to push the bunch 10 into the rolling space 9 of the rolling mecha- The'wrappers are individually laid in the correct position on the supporting surface 2 of the table 1.

During movement between the table and the rollers, the rollers 8a-8c all rotate in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of the mechanism relative to the supporting surface. During such movement, the tip of the wrapper is moved between the bunch 10 and the rearmost roller 8b so that the tip is drawn into the rolling space 9 and the wrapper is rolled around the bunch 10. The rolling mechanism 8 then reaches its end position beyond the edge of the table 1, so that the formed cigar 10 is allowed to fall out of the mechanism.

In accordance with the invention, a flap or strip 18 of flexible material, e.g. rubber, is provided on the end face 19 of the table 1 and projects above the supporting surface 2. As soon as the rolling space 9 is positioned over this flap or strip, the latter will be guided between the enwrapped body 10 and the rear-most roller 8b by reason of the rotation of the body 10' and the roller 8b as seen in Fig. 3. The rear-most roller 8b would normally, by reason of its rotation, tend to prevent the enwrapped body, e.g. the cigar 10', from falling out the free rolling space 9 if the flap 0r strips 18 were not inserted between this roller and the body 10'. However, the flap or strip 18 effectively eliminates this undesirable action of the roller 8b on the body so that the latter is completely free to be dropped out of the rolling space. The dropping of the body is assisted by the first roller 8:: and by the fact that the flag or strip 18, which at first is drawn into the rolling space, is, with continuation of the relative movement between the table and the rolling mechanism 8, again pulled out of the rolling space. This outward movement of the flap or strip 18, as the rollers and the table separate by reason of their relative lateral movement, accelerates the removal of the body, e.g. the cigar, from the rolling space.

The flap or strip 18 may consist of a single element or of a plurality of smaller flaps separated from each other by intervening spaces.

The above described device may also be used for the manufacture of cigar bunches, i.e. for wrapping a binder around a plug of filler tobacco. Similarly, cylindrical or spool-shaped bodies other than tobacco products may be wrapped in a leaf by a device constructed in accordance with the present invention.

What I claim is:

1. A device for rolling an oblong body of revolution in a leaf comprising, in combination, a table for supporting said leaf, a rolling unit defined by a set of parallel rotatable rollers defining a space in Which said body and said leaf are received to roll said leaf about said body, said rolling unit and said table being mounted for relative movement in a direction at right angles to the axes of said rollers and parallel to the surface of said table, and said table closing the lower part of said space when said rolling unit is in overlying relationship to said table, but the lower part of said space being open when said rolling unit ceases to overlie said table to allow the wrapped body to be dropped from said space, one of said rotatable rollers normally acting upwardly upon saidwrapped body and tending by contact therewith to oppose the free falling of said body from said space when said space has been opened, and an expulsion member extending parallel to the axes of said rollers and being positioned to be received between the wrapped body and said one roller when said rolling space is opened to prevent said upwardly acting action of said one roller and to permit free fall of said wrapped body from said space.

2. In a device for'rolling an oblong body of'revolution in a leaf comprising a table for'supporting said le'afy a rolling unit defined by a set of parallel rotatable rollers defining a space in which said body and said leaf are received to roll said leaf about said body, said rolling unit and said table being mounted for relative movement in a direction at right angles to the axes of said rollers and parallel to the surface of said table, and said table closing the lower part of said space when said rolling unit overlying relationship to said table, but the lower part of saidspace being open when said rolling unit ceases to overlie said table to allow the wrapped body to be dropped from said space, one of said rotatable rollers normally c n upward pro said 'w afi o an tendin by contacttherewith to oppose the free falling of said body combin tron pf athin' stripof elastically [flexible material p'arall'el'to the axes of said rollersfand projecting upwardlyfrom the end of said table at which said rollers cease to' overlie said table, said strip thereby being positioned to be received between the wrapped body'and said one roller when said rolling spaceis opened to prevent said upwardly acting action of said one roller and to permit free fall of said wrapped body from said space.

3. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein the expulsion member consists of a strip of thin materiaL' 4. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein the expulsion member consists of at least one strip of flexible material.

No references cited. 

